Return Home

[ skip to navigation ]
Spiritual Habits for Real People

House Church Manual
by
William Tenny-Brittian

Chapter 1
House Church Network Basic Training

What is a House Church? What does one look like? How do they work? Although the House Church is the only church model described in the Bible, it fell into obscurity in the Euro-American culture. Although they flourished elsewhere in the world, especially in India, China, Southeast Asia, and Africa, they hardly got a mention in North America. Until recently. Over the past couple of decades, House Churches have begun to make a resurgence in our culture. Mostly underground, these emerging churches have quietly begun to root, sprout, and propagate. There are no good statistics on how many House Churches there are in the U.S., but estimates run from the thousands to the ten-thousands. The fact is, in a culture that's losing three thousand people from the faith—not the church, the faith—every single day, one of our best hopes may be a resurgence of the biblical model.
This manual was written not only to answer these questions, but to provide a step-by-step guide for starting, growing, and multiplying a House Church and a House Church Network.

A House Church is the body of Christ that meets in home. Nothing more and nothing less.

A House Church is the body of Christ that meets in homes. Nothing more and nothing less. Believers and their friends, neighbors, and acquaintances gathered in someone's home to pray, worship, break bread, and grow into fully committed disciples of Jesus. House Churches tend to be small and intimate—in a House Church, everyone really does know your name, or soon will. A typical House Church has between six to thirty people involved, depending on the size of the home, and because they are small, House Churches are able to mobilize more quickly to respond when someone is in need.

House Church worship can look as varied as the houses in which they meet. Some House Churches begin or end with a meal. Some sing hymns, songs, and praises accompanied by a guitar, or a piano, or a keyboard, or they sing along with a CD, DVD, or tape. Others sing a capella and some don't have a time for singing at all. The Bible study may be a sermon or, more often, an interactive discussion. Prayer is a key part to all House Churches, since the participants come know each other well, they depend on the prayers of their church, and they see great things happen when prayers are lifted on their behalf.

But why House Church? Aren't there enough churches already? Why start something new?

The House Church is the only type of church mentioned in the New Testament.

The first reason is because the House Church is the only type of church mentioned in the New Testament. This doesn't make the House Church the only type of church blessed by God, but it does make it the only form that comes with what might be called a biblical instruction manual and it's certainly the only model the biblical writers produced any information for. Between the birth of the church in about 30 AD and the institutionalization of the church by Constantine in 312, the church primarily existed in homes and during that time managed to become one of the known world's fastest growing religions from Africa to Asia and Europe. The House Church efficiently evangelized their neighborhoods, towns, cities, and regions because of their simplicity and their efficient ability to reproduce more House Churches.

Another reason to consider starting House Churches is because the Institutional Church in the U.S. is in trouble. According to Tom Clegg, the Western culture is the only culture where Christianity is an endangered species—we're the only one loosing more people from the church than we're gaining. In fact, the church in America is losing more than three-million people each year and we're closing three times the number of churches than we're opening.

So, what's wrong with the Institutional Church? Why aren't we winning the world for Jesus? Perhaps because we've become inefficient when it comes to evangelism. Thom Rainer in Surprising Insights from the Unchurched reports that it takes the combined efforts of eighty-five Christians over the period of one-year to produce one convert to the faith. Worse yet, according to the World Christian Encyclopedia, the Institutional Church spends $1,551,466 for each new convert (I'll take that in cash, thank you!).

On the other hand, almost everywhere else in the world the church is doing just fine. In Africa, the church is increasing by twenty-thousand each day. Fifteen-thousand become Christians daily in India. Worldwide, Christianity is growing at a rate of ninety-thousand believers each day. Why the disparaging difference? What is it about the world church that is fueling its growth?

Although there are several elements common to these fast growing movements, no element is more prominent than the fact that each of these movements is related to the House Church Movement. Those who have studied these movements claim they are so effective in reaching people for Jesus because they are relational, they are prayer and biblically focused, and they are led by ordinary, everyday, people rather than seminary trained, church specialists. When a movement is led by the participants, there is a sharing of the leadership and a sharing of resources. There are no experts, so everyone's input and help is vital to accomplishing whatever task lies before them, whether that's leading public worship, ministering to the neighborhood, or hosting a Matthew Party. And when everything is shared, the church comes to look much like the New Testament church.

In a culture that's craving meaning and meaningful relationships, the House Church Movement is both structured and poised to meet those needs. In a nation where less than forty percent of the people are connected with the institutional church, where Christianity is one of the fastest shrinking religions, and where churches are closing faster than they're opening, the structure of the House Church offers hope to those who may never otherwise hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.

What is a House Church Network?

Before we define what a House Church Network is, it would be helpful to know what a House Church Network isn't. In the previous section we defined a House Church as a small body of believers and their friends, neighbors, and acquaintances gathered in someone's home to worship, break bread, and grow into fully committed disciples of Jesus. Whereas most House Churches in the world are almost totally independent from each other, a House Church Network cooperates with a larger fellowship to accomplish tasks, mission, and ministries that an individual House Church could not hope to do.

The closest thing to a House Church Network is a cell church. A cell church is a small body of believers who primarily meet in homes, but are linked to one another as a part of a larger, single church.

Probably the best known cell church is the Yoido Full Gospel Church is Seoul, Korea, pastored by Yongi Cho. The Yoido Church has over 800,000 members as of this writing, virtually all of whom are involved in a local cell group.

Cell churches have a lot to offer. For one, they are structured for significant evangelistic growth. The Yoido Church has been bringing thousands to Jesus each year because, like a House Church, the cell church is focused around relationships. And, because all the cell groups associate with one another, the cell church is able to accomplish exciting ministries and missions. The cell church also has a central pastor who casts the vision for the church and helps set the tone and the direction for the work of the wider church.

However, there are a few weaknesses of the cell church as well. For one, a cell church is geographically fixed in one location, that is, if a cell church in Seattle wants to start another one in Minneapolis, it would literally have to start over with a specially trained cell church pastor and other leaders to provide the needed structure and administration for such an endeavor.

Another difficulty, as seen in Pastor Cho's church in Seoul, is that the potential for such a large church membership can create difficulties in providing a meeting place. Recently, the Yoido Church held a leadership conference for its cell leaders and apprentices. To accommodate all their leaders, the Yoido Church had to rent the Seoul Olympic Stadium at no little expense!

So, what is a House Church Network?

Briefly, a House Church Network may be defined as a network of House Churches, related by geography or affinity, who share a common vision, mission, and values, and cluster together for cooperative ventures, mutual accountability, and who may be a part of a wider fellowship of House Church Networks.


In the House Church Network, each House Church is related to other local House Churches within a single Network. Within their Network, the local House Churches get together on a regular basis for a joint, public worship. By joining together monthly or so, the Network is able to rent or borrow existing space for the Celebration, thus eliminating the need for maintaining a building.
Additionally, every local Network is related to other Networks through a wider fellowship so that together they can accomplish local, regional, and even national or international ministries and missions.

The House Church Network is structured for rapid reproduction of both disciples and churches.

There are a number of strengths to this structure. For one, like both the independent house and the cell church, the House Church Network is structured for rapid reproduction of both disciples and churches. The Network also has the advantage of sharing mutual accountability with other House Churches in the Network as well as within the wider fellowship. And yet, each House Church enjoys the freedom of relative independence within the mission, vision, and values. Additionally, because of the associated Networks, the House Church Network has the ability to reproduce across geo-political boundaries, thus a single House Church could conceivably send one of their own to a distant town (or await a Boeing transfer) to begin a House Church that could become the seed for a new Network and is able to enjoy the accountability and support from the wider Association. Additionally, like the cell church, Networked House Churches are encouraged to meet together for a joint public Worship Celebration on a regular basis; unlike the cell church, the House Church Network provides for reproduction of the Networks themselves, thus the need for an extraordinarily large meeting space is negated.

The House Church Network DNA

The House Church Network's DNA is what separates the House Church Network from all other house church organizations. Just as a living organism's DNA contains the genetic code necessary to create a duplicate organism, so the Network DNA can be defined as the building blocks of faith, belief, values, and behaviors that shape each House Church throughout the Network with a similar disposition and focus. These building blocks are the Mission, the Vision, the Values, and the BedRock Beliefs & Behaviors that are held in common across the organization's breadth.

The DNA of The House Church Network is the Mission, the Vision, the Values, and the BedRock Beliefs & Behaviors that are held in common across the organization's breadth.

1. The Mission of the House Church Network is: "To connect people to God and help them to become fully developed disciples of Jesus Christ." The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20 commands the church to make disciples and we believe this is the key to the very purpose of the church.

2. The Vision of the House Church Network is: "To change the face of the United States and beyond by supporting and building a House Church Planting Movement."

3. The Values of the House Church Network are:

4. The BedRock Beliefs of the House Church Network are the non-negotiables of the faith—the fundamentals if you will. We call them the Kingdom Issues. We have a saying, "If it's not a Kingdom Issue, then it might be good for a discussion, but we're not going to argue about it." Our BedRock Beliefs are summed up in the statement "Jesus and the Four Greats."

Jesus is the living Son of God and we accept Him as our Savior and Lord; He gave us the Four Greats:

5. The BedRock Behaviors spring from the BedRock Beliefs, the Values, the Vision, and the Mission of the House Church Network, since it is by these that we live and breathe and have our being. The BedRock Behaviors of the House Church Network include a commitment to:

Worship weekly and pray and meditate on the Scriptures daily;
Attend and support my House Church;
Tithe my time, talents, and treasures;
Exercise my spiritual gifts and talents for ministry;
Reproduce disciples for the Kingdom of God;
Strive to be like Jesus in every area of my life.

Every House Church Planter/Pastor, apprentice, and House Church leader who is associated with the House Church Network is expected to ascribe, believe, and behave within these guidelines. It is the responsibility of each House Church, Network, and the wider fellowship of House Church Networks to hold each other accountable to these, the building blocks of the House Church Network.

The Five Purposes of the Church

As far as the American church is concerned, few would argue that the most influential book to come out in the late twentieth century is probably Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Church. In his book, Rick suggests that Jesus gave us five biblical purposes for the church. He finds these purposes outlined in the two Great Commandments (Matthew 22:37-40) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20):

  1. Love the Lord with your heart: The church expresses this purpose through worship.
  2. Love your neighbor as yourself: The church demonstrates this purpose through service in ministry.
  3. Go and make disciples: The church accomplishes this through evangelism.
  4. Baptize them: Since baptism is a rite of passage into the church, Warren understands this command as a mandate to become a member of a church and to build relationships through fellowship with other believers.
  5. Teach them to obey all that I have commanded: The church expresses this command by training and equipping people to be fully committed disciples of Jesus.
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47)

These Five Purposes can also be found implicitly demonstrated in the first description we have of the New Testament church in Acts 2:42-47. There we find the new believers learning diligently from the apostles, taking time to worship, spending time together eating and fellowshipping, spending time with their neighbors, and doing good works and sharing in ministry with each other.

Today, the understanding of the Five Purposes has gained wide acceptance from the church around the world. Indeed, the German scholar Christian Schwarz, who studied thousands of growing churches around the world, pointed out in Natural Church Development, a church that is healthy, that accomplishes its purposes, cannot help but to grow.

Because these five purposes are so important to the health of the church, it is clear that every church, including each House Church, should insure all Five Purposes are being accomplished. Although other chapters of this manual deal are dedicated specifically to each of these purposes, a typical House Church might accomplish the Five Purposes in any number of ways.

Worship: Each week the House Church meets for worship together.

Outreach Evangelism: Each week the House Church may pray together for specific individuals to become Christians; they may invite unbelievers into their home fellowships, or take other measures to share their faith collectively and individually with those God puts in their paths.

The Five Purposes of the Church
Worship
Outreach Evangelism
Relationship Building
Discipleship
Service

Relationship Building: Each week the House Church may host a potluck meal and encourage a time of fellowship and sharing.
Discipleship: Each week the House Church not only studies the Bible during the worship, but each participant is encouraged to be a part of a Life Transformation Group.

Service: Each week the House Church may be a part of an ongoing service opportunity such as volunteering at the local food bank, offering services to the neighborhood, or Prayer Walking through the neighborhood and responding to people's needs.

When a church is faithful in accomplishing the Five Purposes, the church will see people coming to Jesus and the church will grow and reproduce, just as the House Churches around the world are doing even now.

Starting a House Church

In the Institutional Church there has long been a mystique about planting churches. You had to be formally assessed to see if you had the right "personality" for the job, you had to attend special schools, and so on. But the reality is this: Any believer can be a church planter. In India, one elderly man became a Christian and started forty-two churches in his first year. There's nothing magical about starting a church and indeed, in some movements, it is expected that each Christian will host a church in their home.

There's nothing magical about starting a church and indeed, in some movements, it is expected that each Christian will host a church in their home.

There are about as many ways of starting a House Church as there are houses in a subdivision. However, below are a number of ways to get started:

1. Simply Begin
If you have a good sized network of Friends, Relatives, Associates, and Neighbors (FRAN), you might want to simply begin. Go to each person in your network and tell them you're starting a church in your house. Then invite them and begin with a regularly scheduled worship time. Or try inviting them to a meal and a preview worship service so they can get the feel of what a House Church is like. Another option would be to invite them as guests to a House Church in the Network that is a model House Church.

2. Host a Matthew Party
Matthew Parties are based on Luke 5:27-29. When Matthew met Jesus for the first time, he threw a party for all his friends and associates so they could meet Jesus too. You can hold a Matthew Party by getting together with your neighbors and friends and just getting to know them. Spend time finding out their Christian affiliation—the odds are most of them will have none. What you do next will depend on your personality. You can simply invite them over to your house for a Bible study on some topic they'd like to explore (try one on leadership, business, parenting, marriage, or ??) and when they come over, begin with a meal, haul out the old guitar or a sing-along CD and voila—House Church happens. If this seems too bold, ask your unchurched neighbors and friends what sort of things they're interested in and then find a Bible study that matches their interest and then find out if they'd be interested. In any event, a Matthew Party is based on building relationships through your FRAN network and then inviting them to explore the Bible, their faith, prayer, or all of the above in a safe and sane environment.

3. Start a Bible Study
It isn't politically incorrect to talk spirituality in the workplace or the leisure places anymore, so take advantage of it. Talk to your FRAN network about getting together for a regular Bible study. Perhaps they will want to study through a book in the Bible. Or maybe they would be interested in a study on what the Bible has to say about finances, ethics, or dating. Whatever the method, the study begins by discovering their interest and then meeting that curiosity.

4. Expand a Journey Group
If you're in a Journey Group (or a Life Transformation Group) then you're in the perfect place to begin a House Church. You can begin to build a House Church from your Journey Group by simply expanding the number of Journey Groups you are a part of. For instance, if you are currently in one Journey Group with two friends, consider starting another one totally separate from the first. Do this again and you have between two and four people who really do need a church. So invite them and their families to a meal and worship at your home. If your friends are married, you could have a houseful to begin with.

5. Host a Breakfast (or any event!) for the Neighborhood Kids
Tony and Felicity Dale, House Church planters in Texas, came up with this one. The neighborhood they lived in had lots of children, and they wanted to reach the unchurched, so they decided to host a hot breakfast on Sunday mornings for the neighborhood. They figured that most of the Christians would be in church at that time, so they would be able to focus on the unreached. They had their own children invite all the neighborhood kids for a Breakfast Bible Club. The children came and over time some of them became Christians and began bringing their parents. Voila—a House Church.

6. Host an Alpha Group
The Alpha Course is an introduction to Christianity and has gained popularity around the world. The course is a ten week study beginning with the question, "Christianity: Boring, Untrue, and Irrelevant?" Alpha is designed to be hosted over a sit-down meal and may be done as a speaker driven course (you teach it), or a video course (pop in the forty-five minute video and discuss it afterwards). To begin a House Church with Alpha, get the materials (House Church Network member churches can borrow the videos and/or leader's guide from the Lending Library), invite participants from your FRAN network, though you may decide to advertise the event as well, set a date and begin. When the course is complete, invite the participants to continue coming to your home for worship. You can find more about the Alpha Course at www.alphana.org.

7. Begin Small and Build
Another way to start a House Church is to talk up the idea among your friends. Every time you see someone's eyes "light up," begin recruiting them to start the House Church with you. When you have a couple of folks, go ahead and begin. In this kind of start, it will be especially important to emphasize inviting others and to achieve all of the Five Purposes of the church so that the new venture doesn't become home-bound.

8. Begin a Discussion Group
Contrary to popular concerns, reading hasn't yet gone out of vogue. Regularly as many of 50 percent of the best sellers on the non-fiction list are self-help and spiritual in nature and this offers an exciting opportunity for starting neighborhood discussion groups. Try choosing a book that either reflects Christian values or will offer the opportunity to introduce these values into the discussion. Look for openings to share pieces of your faith journey as you meet together. As you build relationships and share your faith, begin to introduce prayer and worship.

And for those who aren't into reading, discussion groups formed around movies work well too. Just keep the movie appropriate to the setting and to the participants.

9. Other Ways
Like we said at the beginning of this section, there are probably as many ways to start a House Church as there are houses in a subdivision. Here are some other quick ideas: host a booth at a county fair, festival, or event and tell people about your new House Church; run an ad in the local newspaper or classifieds' paper; start a Bible study at work; or invite local business people to a study of leadership principles in the Bible.


Order the Book Here! 

Go to top of page